Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment.

Recommendation:

1.    That Cabinet adopts the House to House Collections Policy that is attached to this report as Appendix 1.

Consideration was given to the report which outlined the findings of the review into the House to House Collection Policy and recommended approval of the revised Policy. The Council’s current House to House Collection Policy was introduced in 2019. The effectiveness of the Policy was assessed in 2020 and found to be delivering the aims of the Policy, and a commitment was made to undertake a further review of the Policy within 3 years. Following a review by Officers of the existing Policy, a draft version was shared for consultation.

In total, the Council had received 73 responses to the consultation. Of these 73 responses, the overwhelming majority were in favour of maintaining the status quo with regard to the Policy requirements. In addition, consultation had also taken place with Members of the Council’s Licensing Board, who were generally in agreement that the Policy delivered on the intended the aims.

Comments were received during the consultation regarding the current arrangement of setting a minimum percentage as the amount that would be received by the collection beneficiary.  The Policy currently stipulated that at least 80% of the gross proceeds of the collection must be provided to the collection beneficiary. The point was made that the use of percentages was unfair and should therefore be avoided. The principal reason given in support of this position was that the items that were collected only had value once they had been processed by the collector – and that it was unreasonable to limit the amount that could be claimed for this activity to 20% of the total proceeds of the collection (as the costs of adding value to the collected items often exceed this).

This position was assessed during the Policy review, and it was determined that although the Policy referred to a minimum percentage of 80% of the gross proceeds of the collection, it could further support this charitable sector to amend the Policy to provide further scope to decision makers when considering applications, and in recognition of the ongoing pressures as a result of inflation and the cost of living. It was therefore proposed that the Policy be amended so that a minimum of 80% of the net proceeds must be provided to the collection beneficiary, allowing a deduction of up to 20% for the costs associated with the collection and processing of items. In addition, in order to ensure that decision makers were fully aware of the implications of the use of percentages, information from the Institute of Fundraising regarding the use of percentages was presented to decision makers when they were being asked to determine applications for a permit.

Key aspects of the proposed Policy were summarised in paragraph 2.15 to 2.30 of the report and included information on:

·       The application process

·       Obligations on those that are granted a Licence

·       Circumstances that may lead to the refusal of an application

·       Consideration of financial information

·       Administration / Enforcement

The proposed House to House Collection Policy was attached at Appendix 1 of the report.

Resolved:

That Cabinet adopts the House to House Collection Policy that is attached to this report as Appendix 1.